**President Obama
*The Los Angeles Times reports: "Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea for a final vote in the coming weeks. ... Senior administration officials have been holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in the healthcare bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring to the Senate floor this month."

*It's already that time! Boston Globe: "President Obama, facing a critical series of domestic and foreign challenges in upcoming months that will determine whether he delivers on the promises of his presidency, now must grapple with another potential peril: next year's midterm congressional elections."

*John Harwood: "Whatever the fate of health care legislation, persistently high unemployment has made 'Where are the jobs?' the most potent Republican campaign argument as next year's midterm elections come into view."

*Speaking of 2010, Politico looks at Biden's role in helping Democrats' campaign to hold the House.

*AP: "Campaign rhetoric" about Afghanistan "is coming up against a tough reality for the president, who now must make a crucial decision about how to proceed in what he's called a war of necessity." The wire service reports: "With mounting U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, waning public support for the war and a dire assessment of the situation on the ground by his commanding general, Obama may be forced to decide there is no military solution in Afghanistan," as he has said in Iraq.

*New York Times looks at the different role David Petraeus has in the Obama White House, adding: "The change has fueled speculation in Washington about whether General Petraeus might seek the presidency in 2012. His advisers say that it is absurd -- but in immediate policy terms, it means there is one less visible advocate for the military in the administration's debate over whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan."

**Supreme Court Back In Session: AP previews: "The featured argument on the court's first day will be over how long a suspect's request for a lawyer should remain valid. Other high profile cases come later in the year -- including arguments over strict local and state gun control laws."

**Congress
*"GOP leaders, in a private meeting last month, delivered a blunt and at times heated message to RNC Chairman Michael Steele: quit meddling in policy," Politico reports. "Elected Republicans urged Steele to focus on the governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia and other political matters, such as fundraising, rather than on attempting to establish party policy."

*"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), once in polite disagreement over the idea of a public option component in healthcare legislation, are approaching a breaking point over the issue," The Hill reports.

*Although Baucus "said he has the votes to pass the 10-year, $900 billion bill out of the committee, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) remained undecided Sunday. If all 10 Republicans on the panel vote no, two Democratic defections would be enough to send Baucus and the Obama White House scrambling to regroup," WaPo reports.

*Rockefeller "has waited a long time for this moment. Since 1964, to be exact. So he was unabashedly emotional as the Senate Finance Committee neared completion of its work on health reform," reports Politics Daily. "He's also a longtime advocate of health care for children and the poor - and, as Congress moves toward its moment of truth on health care, perhaps the most earnest, dogged Senate champion of a nationwide public health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies."

*Politico reports that "the joyous reaction in some GOP quarters to the International Olympics Committee's snub of Chicago -- coupled with the party's rapid-fire reaction to bad economic data -- has some Democrats turning the tables and asking if Republicans are the ones cheering against America now."

**Campaign Stuff
*"Since mid-August, Biden already has appeared at fundraisers for close to a dozen junior House Democrats -- almost exclusively first-termers -- helping them rake in more than $1 million, according to party officials," Politico reports. "It turns out that after 36 years in the Senate, he is emerging as the patron saint of the party's vulnerable House freshmen -- and a key figure in defending the 79-seat Democratic House majority.

*Biden is also defending the Senate -- he spoke alongside Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) Friday evening at the Bucks County Dem Committee's annual dinner. "You've all been closeted Specter supporters and now you can do it openly, you can do it enthusiastically," Biden said, according to a pool report. "You don't have to deny at the barber shop you're a Democrat and you didn't vote for him, so do it twice this time in terms of your degree of energy and effort."

*"Whatever the fate of health care legislation, persistently high unemployment has made 'Where are the jobs?' the most potent Republican campaign argument as next year's midterm elections come into view," NY Times reports.

*Cillizza reports: "Former representative J.D. Hayworth is weighing a candidacy against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in 2010, according to sources familiar with his thinking. ... McCain already faces a primary challenge from Chris Simcox, a founder of the Minutemen -- a leading anti-immigration group. While there is considerable resentment from some grassroots conservatives toward McCain, it's not clear that he is vulnerable to a primary challenge. McCain ended June with $4.65 million in the bank."

*New York Times profiles Linda McMahon. "Those who know Ms. McMahon say it would be a mistake to underestimate her. ... But rather than celebrating the arrival of Ms. McMahon, a well-financed Greenwich businesswoman who, with her husband, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, some Republicans are squirming over the emergence of a political novice from a world known for down-market programming featuring leotards and outrageous stunts."

*A tough challenge for Herseth-Sandlin? Argus Leader: "Secretary of State Chris Nelson and state Rep. Blake Curd of Sioux Falls say they are entering the race because they don't like the decisions being made in Washington. They join Thad Wasson of Piedmont, setting the stage for a Republican primary next June. Wasson, a former Marine and a technician with Qwest Communications, announced in July."

*Republicans have a candidate for governor in Wyoming. The main question is, will Dave Freudenthal push to challenge term limits and run again?

*Democrats are vowing a tough challenger for Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Des Moines Register reports. "State Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan is keeping under wraps the name of the candidate he promises can give Grassley the "race of his life," but he says the announcement will be 'very soon.'"

*Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato officially enters the Pennsylvania governor race today. The P-G: "Onorato starts out with significant assets in the race: name recognition in one of the state's Democratic strongholds, demonstrated fund-raising prowess and the ability to portray himself as an executive who presided over a regional economy rebounding from long-term distress. But among his Democratic rivals are candidates who will compete with him for each of those potential strengths."

*WI-Gov: A Journal Sentinel poll has Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (R) leading the primary fields.

**Sports Alert: The Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers each won on the final day of the Major League Baseball season. So, to paraphrase the late, great Jack Buck: We'll see ya on Tuesday night. A one-game playoff for the AL Central title will be held Tuesday at the Metrodome. The winner gets the unfortunate honor of playing the soon-to-be World Champion New York Yankees (That's Mike's take).

--Kyle Trygstad and Mike Memoli